Music Video Finale

Artist:  Adele            

Song: Rolling in the Deep

Lyrics:

There's a fire starting in my heart
Reaching a fever pitch, and it's bringing me out the dark
Finally, I can see you crystal clear
Go ahead and sell me out, and I'll lay your ship bare
See how I'll leave with every piece of you
Don't underestimate the things that I will do
There's a fire starting in my heart
Reaching a fever pitch, and it's bringing me out the dark

The scars of your love remind me of us
They keep me thinking that we almost had it all
The scars of your love, they leave me breathless
I can't help feeling

We could have had it all
(You're gonna wish you never had met me)
Rolling in the deep
(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)
You had my heart inside of your hand
(You're gonna wish you never had met me)
And you played it to the beat
(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)

Baby, I have no story to be told
But I've heard one on you
Now I'm gonna make your head burn
Think of me in the depths of your despair
Make a home down there
As mine sure won't be shared

(You're gonna wish you never had met me)
The scars of your love remind me of us
(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)
They keep me thinking that we almost had it all
(You're gonna wish you never had met me)
The scars of your love, they leave me breathless
(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)
I can't help feeling

We could have had it all
(You're gonna wish you never had met me)
Rolling in the deep
(Tears are gonna fall, rolling in the deep)

My team is Emily, Gavin and Me. Emily is one of my best friends and really fun to work with. We have worked together on our Metamorphosis Animation project. Gavin I have not worked with before, but I think we will have fun! We chose Adele's song Rolling in the Deep. The actual reason why we chose this is because we couldn't find a song we liked. So Rolling in the Deep was the only song that we all kinda liked. Personally, I love that song, so I am very happy! Also, I think it will be pretty easy to make a story, so that is also good.

Our story is about two friends, me and Emily. In the beginning, we have a huge verbal fight. (yelling, etc.) Then, we both walk away, and break up our friendship. In the middle, I start spreading rumors and being mean to Emily at school. In the end, Emily just gives up talking to me and just decides to be by herself. In the beginning, there was aggressive and angry lyrics, so that's why we fight. In the middle there is other kind of vengeful and mean lyrics, so that's why I start being mean to Emily. In the end, there is kinda "I give up" lyrics, so we had Emily give up be herself without me. This is our story line, and I think it relates to our lyrics.

This does show all of our highest quality work. For starters, the poster shows things we learned in our Low Poly projects and our inspiration poster projects, like the quick selection tool and background effects. Our filming shows all kinds of composition techniques and intentional, slow camera movement, which really adds to our quality level. Plus, we used video effects that showcases our use of effects that relate to our story. We did have some trouble, mainly that we couldn't film for about a week, which definitely stressed us out, but we finally filmed and it turned out awesome! I think, overall, our music video will be pretty good, so I'm very satisfied.

Movie Trailer Premier

Our new project is awesome, and I'm super excited about my team. I am the team leader, so I have to make sure they work, and so far, they are doing good. Our project is to create an awesome and high quality movie trailer. The movie we are creating it for is fictitious, though. That means we have to make it all up ourself. We also must have have a dramatic voice actor, which in this case is Isaac, also known as Judge Stan Dubey in our trailer. We also have a movie poster, which yours truly will be making. Prepare for awesomeness! Our movie is Objection Overruled, and it is going to be supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! I am having so much fun working on our plan too. I officially did the poster sketch and synopsis, both of which are awesome. I unofficially helped Alex and Isaac with the 4p's and keywords as well as the voice acting script, both of which turned out pretty good and funny. I have a feeling that this is going to be AWESOME!

Our biggest challenge was probably making the shots look good. When we first planned each composition technique (macro, rule of thirds) and shot type (wide, close), we had not seen our location, unfortuneatley. So, when we actually got there, our location was a small stage in Kapa'a High School Gym, where a volleyball team was practicing. Because of this, many of our shots were impossible to do. This was unfortunate, but we prevailed by adjusting shots. For example, if the planned shot said, "Wide of courtroom" that was impossible to do, so we did a medium of the courtroom on a tripod on a table behind everybody. This turned out pretty well, so our shots were not as high quality as we wanted to be, but with some editing and camera adjustments, we made it work. Our biggest success was probably our humorousness. I was worried that it would be too cheesy and not-funny, but we made it awesome! We all have "acting chops", so we had a lot of fun embracing our characters and leaving it out on the stage; in this case literally! I think we made it quite funny, and I'm very proud of how funny our movie trailer is!

We got voted second best movie trailer! I am very happy and proud of these critique results. Most people thought ours was very funny and good, as shown in these graphs. I am super glad that I got to work with my team for this super cool project. I learned a lot too. I learned how to really work together with my team to create our final product. I also learned a lot about photoshop in making the movie posters, like how to do text overlays and background effects. This was so much fun to do!

Metamorphosis Animation

Our new project is a animation about metamorphosis. I am in a group with Emily M. (http://emilydesigns808.blogspot.com/) and Julian (http://julians18.blogspot.com/). Our two focus statements that we are considering is Tree Bears Fruit and Spirt Recognizes Wolfishness.

The project goal is to create  pitch slideshow presentation with your two top focus statements to our class, and then fill out our plan and storyboard before creating a 1-2 minute animated video. This should be really cool! The focus statement that we are going to work with is Spirt Recognizes Wolfishness. This was chosen by our fellow students after we presented our pitch. We are using Photoshop to create our storyboard pictures. The animation types we are using is the Stykz, Claymation, and Photoshop. Scene 1 was Photoshop, Scene 2 and 4 was Claymation, and Scene 3 and 5 was Stykz.

Our Storyboard

Our Focus Statement is Spirt Recognizes Wolfishness. This is a good summarization of our animation. Our plot is Emily, a lonely orphan who doesn't like her life at all. She then meets a wolf in the woods, and she throws stones at it. That night, she is transformed into a wolf. She goes back to the woods and meets the same wolf. The wolf knows who she is, but Emily does not recognize the wolf. The wolf, Nani, shows Emily the way wolves live and introduces her to the wolf pack, where Nani is the leader. Emily likes living with the wolves after a while. Then, in the night, when Emily is sleeping, the Wolf Goddess appears and gives her the choice to stay a wolf or go back to being a human being. Emily thinks about it, and decides to stay a wolf. Her wolf friends are very happy, and Nani accepts her into the pack. She starts a new life as Mahina the wolf.

Our critique went pretty well. We got a 2.7 on overall animation, a 2.3 on Clarity, Understanding, and Message, a 2.6 on Characters, Props and Background, and a 3 on Creativity, Originality and Execution. We also got 2 votes for Best Animation, which is good. I think these results are pretty accurate. We did a pretty good job on all the sections, although we did mess up on the audio on some scenes, but overall we did a good job. We did have some consistency issues on some scenes that we unfortunately did not have enough time to fix. I think we did the best we could have done in the time we had, especially since some of our teammates computers crashed, could not make it to meetings and exported shots the wrong way. We tried our best, and I'm proud of the whole animation,  my especially scenes 1 and 4. We did what we could, and I'm happy with the results.

Geometric Portraits

Links I used to research:

The Universally Recognized Facial Expressions

Wikipedia Facial Expression

AltmanG_Easy from a website 

Facial expressions are universal. No matter where we come from, we are all wired with basically the same facial expressions to use when we feel an emotion like joy, sadness, disgust and anger. There has been controversy over this subject, but I agree with the scientists and people who think they are universal.  Charles Darwin wrote that  “facial expressions of emotion are universal, not learned differently in each culture”. This I found from The Universally Recognized Facial Expressions. Wikipedia Facial Expression also says that there has been controversy over this topic, but it has studies that agree with it.

First you take a photo. It can be a self-portrait using PhotoBooth, like we did for Poly 1, or a self portrait with a different kind of camera, like we did for Poly 3 or a portrait of someone else, like we did for Poly-2. Then, you take it into Photoshop.

AltmanG_Poly-2 

For our Poly 1, we took a symmetrical photo. This is so you only need to do one side of your face, because you will flip it later. Use the line tool to draw a outline of your face, and all the features, making sure that your grid is on and that the end of your line intersects with the grid.  Then, draw triangles over all of your face, small ones on your features and big ones on your skin. Then you fill in the triangles with color by going to filter<blur<average. Then cut out your face, flip over a copy, and put it on a white background and you are done. For Poly 2, we did not draw an outline, but just used our polygonal lasso tool to draw triangles, then using the eyedropper tool to select a color and going Alt+Delete to fill the triangle. Then we made our background more Low Polyish and adjusting curves and brightness.

My Poly 1 and Poly 2 were very different in how we did them. The Poly 1, has a grid over half of the face, and both sides are completely symmetrical. Also, it looks more realistic. Poly 2 is more creative and harder to do. It is not symmetrical  and it has a background that looks like low poly. In Poly 1, the computer blended all the colors of the triangle to blend it in, whereas in Poly 2, we had to hand select the color and had to make sure that no triangles were the same color that were next to each other.
However, both things are created in photoshop, take a lot of time, and have the Low Poly look. Also, they are both very interesting to look at.

Verbal Landscapes

Nature impacts everyone's life.  However, for me, nature is very inspirational and I love to just explore everywhere, from my backyard to the woods. I love to collect things from nature, and have quite a collection. Nature is also big in my family, and we try to go on as many hikes and swims as possible. Nature is also very soothing for me, and I try to be in it as much as possible.

Timelapses, such as the ones in my video, are creating by filming a wide view of something for about 10-20 minutes. In this project, we are also required to use environmental tripods to film both timelapses and slow mos. Later, when you import your video footage into Final Cut Pro, you go to the ReTime editing tool, which will let you slow down or speed up your footage. You would speed up a timelapse. For a slow mo, you would do much of the same things. Except, you would do a close or macro view of your subject for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Then, you import your footage to Final Cut Pro, and go the ReTime editor, but you would make it slower not faster. Timelapses are sped up so you can see things like clouds moving or waves breaking faster. Slow mo's are slowed down so you can see movement in great detail, like leaves moving or water washing onto rocks.

One of the hardest parts of this project was filming the timelapses and being able to keep still long enough to do it right with no shakiness. Also, the editing has been a bit of a struggle for sure. One of the most fun parts was the filming of the slow mo's and writing the poem. The slow mo's were fun because I filmed some fun things and was pretty easy. The poem was really fun and fairly easy to
write. I love nature, so I definitely had a lot of material to chose form to write my poem.

Our critique is of 27 people viewing your video as a class. Most people, 70%, gave my project a 3.  I think that's pretty much what I think. However 5, people, 18%, did give me a 4 and two people said I had the best video, so I'm very flattered. I definitely feel that some parts are a 4 quality, but some things, like the shakiness, is more of a 3, so it's difficult to pick what grade it is. Two people gave me a 2, which I definitely don't agree with. It is not developing.  I'm glad no one gave me a 1. I agree, with most of the results that I got.

Poetic Personal Statment

My Sketch

My Text

Poetry is an elaborate form of writing that is used to express yourself. You can add rhythm or rhyme to make it better. You can also make it personal by adding personal thoughts, opinions and personal experiences. This will make it personal. Many things can be poetic, such as photography, videography, paintings and nature. Poetry is very expressive. I think poetry is used to describe something in a way that you might not have ordinarily thought of.

This is my poetic personal statement that will be on my Poetic Designs Project. Here it is:

I wish to write a story

of things glory and gory

Someday, one day

I will be what I want to be

Arguing for a fee

Happy, having fun, yet free

and when I am old in age, 

a cat lady

I used rhythm to make my Poetic Personal Statement more fluid and nicer to read.  I think rhythm is very good for poetry.  Also, I think using your creativity to think of words that rhyme makes your poetry more interesting. I used rhyme throughout my kinda short statement. I also tried to use metaphors throughout it. I think rhythm is very good for poetry.  It was fun figuring how many things rhyme with "e".

Music Video Finale

P3T9 Stayin Alive from Kapaa Middle School MEDIA on Vimeo

Song: Stayin' Alive           Artist: The BeeGees          My team: Alex, Nick and Me

Lyrics:

Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk

I'm a woman's man: no time to talk

Music loud and women warm, I've been kicked around

Since I was born

And now it's all right, it's OK

And you may look the other way

We can try to understand

The New York Times' effect on man

Yeah, Nick and Alex totally worked great together! 

Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother

You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive

Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin'

And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive

Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive

Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive

Well now, I get low and I get high

And if I can't get either, I really try

Got the wings of heaven on my shoes

I'm a dancin' man and I just can't lose

You know it's all right, it's ok

I'll live to see another day

We can try to understand

The New York Times' effect on man

Whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother

You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive

Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin'

And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive

Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive

Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive

Life goin' nowhere, somebody help me

Life goin' nowhere, somebody help me yeah

Me and Alex hanging out

Our team is doing Stayin' Alive by the BeeGees. This is an 70's song, so its one of the oldies! Whoo-hoo! Our storyline is about a girl, (me) who was walking in the park with her friends, Nick and Alex, when she sees a tree, and she wants to climb it. Her friends try to convince her that she should not do it, because it is dangerous. She listens but decided to do it anyway. Her friends are very worried about her, but she prevails. She climbs the tree, and comes down easily, and her friends are relived that she was alive. This is related to our song lyrics. I am overcoming my fears, do something I would not normally do, and still stay alive!!! So, our lyrics definitely match our storyline.

Nick enjoying the tree

Our fast edit montage is going illustrate the struggle between me and my friends. What I'm talking about is when I want to climb the tree, and my friends don't want me to. What it will be is one shot me climbing the tree, one shot of Nick worried, me climbing the tree, Alex worried, me climbing the tree and then my excited face. This is showing that I am climbing while my friends are worried and then I am on the top and I am staying alive! This is will probably not be quite as fast paced as I would like, but it will probably between 1-3 seconds each shot. Another shorter, faster, and quite better fast edit montage is at the very end of our music video. It is about me thinking back to what happened that day. There is one shot of me that we green screened and put on a red background, thinking, then there will be one shot of Nick worried, one of Alex worried, one of me climbing, one of Alex and Nick relived, and me happy, and me going, "Well, it all worked out good". I think this is nice end to our music video.

Alex "acting" (like a dog)

This project definitely showcases our best talents. Our filming showcases our filming skills, which if their good, their music video will turn out good.  If your stuff, is well, not as good, then you might want to re-film. Our lip sync, well I guess that showcases our practicing skills? Because if it's not good, you obviously didn't practice. Our editing definitely showcases our editing techniques. Also, how good you can maneuver in imovie definitely shows. If your good, your music video will have transitions, green screened stuff, and more! Plus our psds for our bloopers and intro graphic showcase our acuteness in Photoshop.